Panasonic's rugged SD card camcorder
Panasonic SDR-S10
Earlier, we reported on the Panasonic SDR-S10, an SD card camcorder the company claimed was the smallest on the market. Unfortunately, details were sparse. Fortunately, we finally got the full scoop on the little camcorder.
Panasonic officially announced the SDR-S10 at PMA 2007. The SDR-S10 is a compact, rugged, affordable SD card camcorder that can handle both drops and splashes. The S10 measures just 1.5 inches thick and weighs just 6.4 ounces, making it at least one of the smallest and lightest camcorders we've seen so far. It's shockproof for drops up to four feet, and resistant against rain, snow, splashes, and other moisture.
Of course, there's more to camcorders than how small they are and much abuse they can take. The S10's sensor resolution is less than one megapixel, though its sub-$400 pricing helps make up for that. It features a 44 to 444mm-equivalent 10x zoom lens, a 2.7-inch pivoting LCD screen, and can accept SDHC cards of up to 4 gigabytes, or about 100 minutes of footage at the highest quality setting.
Many inexpensive camcorders use SD and SDHC cards, including the Samsung SC-MX10 and SC-X300, and the Mustek DV570TZ and DV700TZ. The Panasonic SDR-S10 is the first rugged, weather-resistant SD camcorder we've seen, and one of the first to come with a 2GB SD card. The S10 ships in April with a suggested retail price of $400, SDcard included.
